A canvas tent already covers the fountain of A Ferrería to proceed with its restoration. As announced by the councilor of the Historic Center, Teresa Casal, it will be the most exhaustive to which the pump will be subjected since its reconstruction in its current location of the Casto Sampedro gardens in 1928 at the hands of the Archaeological Society.
What are the origins of this source? The historian Xosé Fortes Bouzán takes us back to the 16th century, when Pontevedra gradually became "the most dynamic, rich and populous city in Galicia, reaching a splendor that resulted in numerous urban developments and civil works". One of them was the bringing of water from the springs of Moldes, crowned with the monumental fountain of A Ferrería, “which not only alleviated the shortage of water, especially acute in the summers, but also became one of the symbols of the villa ”, to boa vila who gives drink to who passes. Fortes explains in his book Pontevedra en el Espejo del Tiempo, that Ambrosio de Morales went so far as to affirm that "in factory greatness and gold," it could compete with those of Córdoba.
In order to undertake the works of the brought from the springs of Moldes, the Council had to face numerous legal, economic and technical difficulties. And despite everything, they were done at a good pace and it is estimated that the laying must have been completed in 1554, the date on which the sources of A Ferrería and Santo Domingo are auctioned. According to the data collected by the Pontevedra historian, the trace of the chafarises was the work of Juan López, a neighbor of Porto (Portugal), "whom Professor Filgueira Valverde identified as the author of the Caminha and Viana sources, taken as a model" .
The fountain of A Ferrería would have to be "of the brand, size, height and with the perfections and workmanship that the main chafarís has that is in the square of the town of Caminha", according to an agreement of the Council. The execution was awarded at public auction to Domingo Fontán, who had carried out the works of the brought and was working at that time in the vaults of Santa María. But he died before seeing his work finished, finished off by other officers.
The original fountain was installed in front of the southern arcades of A Ferrería and a building belonging to the Soutomaiors had to be expropriated, exchanged for a plot of Monte do Boi. There is hardly any documentation about that of Santo Domingo. It is believed that it was finished after 1574 and apparently it was not to the liking of the Pontevedra rulers for not complying with the clauses of the contract.
Fortes states that in order to preserve the A Ferrería fountain, the Council established agreements with specialists and named Francisco Gonçalves as the first known plumber, who in 1597 was assigned a salary of 6,000 maravedíes per year. He also cites numerous acts and parties forbidding clothing and animal guts to be washed in the fountain, as well as the stables to drink, for which the pylon was surrounded by a protection circle with four entrances and a kind of water trough was built.
RecoveryThe primitive fountain was apparently the object of various restorations, both of the pipes and of the basin and other pieces, until in 1858 it was replaced by a more modest one in the atrium of the Pilgrimage. In 1928 the old fountain, many of whose pieces were preserved in the Ruins of Santo Domingo, returned to the Ironworks, settling in the center of the San Francisco gardens. The works were directed by the architect Salgado and several artists collaborated in its reconstruction, among them Castelao, who made several sketches.
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